Breakfast with Buddha

Great Read

Fun easy read. Loved it. Read it with a book club. Everyone liked it. It is the kind of book that you don't want to put down. From the first page it is entertaining. If you like food, road trips and peace this is the book for you. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A friend recommended Breakfast with Buddha and I followed up on her clue.

I enjoyed the book so much, I devoured it mindfully, at a slow pace, being such a brief book I steeped myself in the story. I read a lot of non-fiction, so I really enjoyed this little book as it was right up my alley. It is a good book.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

great read

easy to read yet thought provoking

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

What a Pleasant Book

I wasn't sure about this book until after I had read the first 45 to 50 pages. From then on every page was a treat. When I had to put it down and do something else, I found there was a smile on my face and in my heart. It is also very thought provoking. This is a book that I will read again.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very thought provoking.

Really good book. Makes you think about choosing good, quieting the anger and all of the superficial things that life throws your way every day. I've felt my mind relax over the past couple of days and find that I am taking deeper breaths and letting the constant roar of my thoughts float by.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

First, it's not for everybody. If you are reasonably open minded, it is an enjoyable cross-country trip that explores growing your spiritual awareness. This book is for readers who enjoy meta-fiction and have a life is a journey mind-set. It doesn't push any dogma or belief. It really just recommends you relax, clean up, and open up, while presenting a light quick, easy read. I enjoyed it. It made me think. John

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

funny and enjoyable

It's a fiction story, the characters are lovable each in his own way.
Easy to read and thoughtful.

Good story

It was a light hearted, slightly comical story ending with a slight twist. Not the best book I've ever read but still worth reading. I'd recommend it

Enjoyable

Didn't knock my socks off but i enjoyed it and call it fun and thought provoking. Wish it was a little more profound but liked the spiritualism without religion and felt it was realistic. Thought the ending was slightly lackluster but still really liked the book overall.

Fabulous!

An engaging, thought provoking novel. What a fun trip Mr. Merullo takes us on with the joyous Rinpoche. Ignore anything less than 5 stars, and just buy this!

Katelyn

I have not read the book but will because l am buddist.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book, would recomend it to any fellow seeker!

Just an excellent read by an excellent author.

Wonderful

Fantastic book. Engaging, thought-provoking, entertaining.

I hated it.

We had to read this for a class. I couldn't stand it from the very first chapter, and it never got any better. Otto is NOT a likable character and is also not relatable unless you are a middle-aged man with a middle class family. His sister is a stereotype, and the Rinpoche doesn't seem to do very much.
Merullo makes several attempts at humor and fails miserably. His jokes and situations are unfunny and sometimes feel forced. He also makes several attempts at being deep, but most of those fall flat as well. The ones that don't are the lessons he stole from actual buddhists who actually know what they are talking about. He seems to be writing this from the point of view of a content, comfortable middle class american family man. One whose questionings only arise out of the death of his parents, before which he never had to seriously question or think about the world. For someone who has spent their whole life trying to understand the world without any outside prompt, it seems to lack authenticity and heart, and also understanding. Otto never seems to really get it. I think he only THINKS he gets it. He doesn't. But, like any all-american man he thinks he can just learn very little about something and suddenly understand it completely.
This was a waste of my time, and it is unfortunate that my professor seemed to mistake it for REAL literature. If you really want to learn about buddhism, there are much better and more authentic ways. If you want to be like Otto and only have a narrow understanding, go ahead and read this, I guess.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A road trip for your soul

I can't tell enough people to read this book. What an amazing story!!! I was sad to get to the end, for I wanted to keep having breakfast with Otto and Rinposhe.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

WOW

such a great read. inspirational and made me reflect a lot on my life and how I conduct myself and my thoughts. I loved this book. it was very interesting. very touching moments to some hilariously funny moments. Awesome.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Fun and serious - a great read!

The cover picture tells it all. The book is fun and serious at the same time. The message is "Lighten up. Life is too short. Keep things in balance. And most of all, don't take yourself too seriously." A tale of fiction covering the deepest truths. Read it!

Wonderful story...wonderfully written

The author sets a tone of informality and maintains a consistent intimacy with the reader throughout the journey of the book.

I related very strongly with the narrator and found that his spiritual journey was feasible and even felt as if he brings you there with him.

Very pleased to have found this gem.

A journey worth taking

Otto is a happily married, happily employed father and culinary book editor from New York who is rather unwillingly convinced to take his sister's guru, Volya Rinpoche, on a cross-country trip to settle their parents' estate in North Dakota. Over the course of several days, Otto attempts to teach Rinopoche about America - showing him Hershey's kisses, bowling, "furniture" golf, and baseball, as well as the beauty of its nature and the sometimes tragedy of its cities, while Rinopoche works to take Otto on a more inward voyage.

Part travelogue, part "food-logue," and part spiritual journey, overall the author balances each part quite well to make for an interesting trip. For some reason I expected it to be lighter, but I never felt like it was heavy, and I did laugh out loud at the yoga session. I related to the main character - I understood well where he was coming from - so his "awakening" was thought-provoking.

Buddhism Meets Midwestern Prostestantism

It's an interesting premise. Take an Upper Middle Class Married Professional with a Wife, Two Kids a good job and the suburban house and throw him into daily enforced contact with a semi-Buddhist Rinpoche or Guru and see what happens. The idea is interesting, the characters well positioned and developed and the plot is plausible. And the author does a great job of making it believable and in letting it flow. It could have been trite and forced but the story seems to flow. It is even amusing and has its twists and turns. And I really enjoyed and actually I've read it twice. But still in all I felt it just barely missed. It wasn't quite as good as it might have been. I didn't quite relate to the main character as much as I thought I would. I found him kind of self satisfied and unreachable. And maybe this is just my prejudice coming through but I somehow wanted it to be more - for the transformations to be more detailed or a little more real life. Still in all I give it an A- grade. Not quite what I hoped for but still really well done and polished and thought provoking and enjoyable.